This collection of texts includes initial biographical notes detailing how author Isaac Asimov first published his popular series of science fiction stories that eventually became the Foundation Trilogy in hardcover format. The main portion of the excerpts follows the quest of Foundation councilman Golan Trevize, accompanied by historian Janov Pelorat and the planetary mind Bliss (representing the collective organism Gaia), as they search for the radioactive and long-lost origin world, Earth. Their perilous journey takes them across the Galaxy to unique societies, including the isolationist Solarians and the seemingly peaceful New Earth, while Trevize grapples with justifying his decision to choose Galaxia over the Foundation’s established plan for a Second Empire. The search concludes on Earth’s moon where the ancient robot R. Daneel Olivaw reveals that he has secretly manipulated galactic events for millennia, having orchestrated the entire voyage to confirm Trevize’s choice of Galaxia as humanity's safest future.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.